“
The fact that the question is even asked, the fact that black excellence in a
particular field needs ‘explaining’, tells its own story. I can’t recall any
documentaries trying to discover an organisational gene left over from fascism
that explains why Germany and Italy have consistently been Europe’s best
performing football teams. Spain’s brief spell as the best team in the world, with
a generation of players born in the years immediately after Franco’s death,
would seem to confirm my fascism-meets-football thesis, right? Clearly this
would be a ridiculous investigation - or who knows maybe I am on to something
- but the question would never be asked because German, Italian and Spanish
brilliance don’t really need explaining, or at least not in such negative ways.
When I was young, I vividly remember watching a BBC doc called Dreaming
of Ajax which investigated why one Dutch club, Ajax Amsterdam, was able to
produce better football players than the whole of England. It was a fantastic
documentary that looked with great admiration at the obviously superior
coaching systems of Ajax, which became so visible in their home-grown players’
performances. But it did not look for some mystery Dutch gene left over from
some horrendous episode in European history. Nor did white dominance in
tennis or golf - until Tiger and the Williams sisters, anyway - need to be
explained by their ancestors having so much practice whipping people for so
long, and ending up with strong shoulders and great technique as a result!
”
”